http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16258914%255E7583,00.html
John Stone: The case for assimilation
August 15, 2005
SINCE London's July 7 bombings, the federal Government has been under pressure
to address Australia's rapidly growing Muslim problem.
But it clearly still wants to avoid the real issues: the need to abandon
outright our official multiculturalism policies and the need to sharply reduce,
to the point of virtually halting, further inflow of people whose culture
(Islam) is such that there can be no realistic hope of them ever integrating
into Australian society.
Recently on this page (July 22), I proposed six measures to begin addressing
those issues. Even as that went to press, further London bomb attacks were
attempted. A retired senior ASIO officer (backed by the Federal Police
Commissioner) now says ASIO knows of about 60 Muslims resident here who have
received training in terrorist activities such as bomb-making.
Before I am accused of stirring up race hatred, the multiculturalism industry's
invariable response when it lacks reasoned arguments, consider some figures.
On July 22 I mentioned "roughly 330,000 Muslims in Australia today". That was
based on the 282,000 self-declared Muslims in the 2001 census (81,000 more than
in 1996). But the census religious affiliation question is optional; 1,835,000
people did not answer it in 2001. So 330,000 clearly understates the reality.
A YouGov poll among Britain's Muslims immediately after the July 7 bombings
(London's The Daily Telegraph, July 23) found 6 per cent believed them fully
justified. A further 24 per cent, while not condoning the bombings, expressed
sympathy with the feelings and motives of their perpetrators. Some 32 per cent
believe "Western society is decadent and immoral" and "Muslims should seek to
bring it to an end".
If we (complacently) assume that Britain's Muslim problem is three times as bad
as ours, then "only" 2 per cent of our Muslims would find London-type bombings
here fully justified. Even on that understated 330,000 figure, that means 6600
murder-approving Australian Muslims. Likewise, another 8 per cent (26,400) will
feel sympathy with the feelings and motives of those who, one day, will commit
such atrocities here. On the same assumptions, more than 10 per cent (35,200)
believe that Muslims should seek to bring our society to an end.
How do our multiculturalism apologists ignore such figuring? Even if they feel
their own, typically comfortable lives aren't in much danger, don't they care
about other Australians (for example, those using public transport) likely to
be killed or maimed when calamity strikes? Don't they have children, or
grandchildren, who will live in an increasingly Muslim-influenced Australia?
Here then are some more measures to help deal with the problem. First, cut back
hard on giving welfare benefits to immigrants (genuine refugees excepted). The
most powerful inducement to Muslim (and other) immigration into Britain has
been the sheer munificence, for those involved, of social security benefits
they receive. Anyway, why should Australian taxpayers foot such bills for those
who, having chosen to live among us, then batten upon us?
Second, debar funds from any country that denies genuine religious freedom
coming to Australian religious institutions. Saudi Arabia, whose oil moneys
have funded fundamentalist Islamic mosques, schools and media outlets
throughout the world, is the obvious example.
Third, the Australian Defence Force should be ordered to put more resources
(and be given the necessary extra funding) into sealing our wide-open back door
across Torres Strait from Papua New Guinea (the route taken, incidentally, by
Peter Qasim seven years ago).
Fourth, government spokespeople, federal and tate, must stop bowing to
political correctness and start calling ethnically based crime by its real
name. The Sydney Morning Herald editorialists tut-tutting about such
truth-telling should read their own Natasha Wallace's chilling report (SMH,
July 22) on the horrific series of 2002 Ashfield gang rapes by four brothers of
Pakistani origin.
Fifth, state governments (whose jurisdiction it is) should follow the Italian
Government's recent lead and forbid the public wearing of identity-concealing
garments such as the burka or the chador, which not only exclude Muslim women
from society but can also cover bomb belts. If that were to deter Muslims from
coming here, or induce some existing Muslim residents to go home, both results
could be borne with equanimity.
Finally, make the 2006 census religious affiliation question compulsory.
In short, we must fundamentally rethink our immigration policies and our
official policies of multiculturalism (that is, non-assimilation). Our future
immigration policy should focus on whether those concerned are capable of
assimilating into an Australian culture shaped by, and part of, a
Judeo-Christian Western civilisation.
Our outstandingly successful wave of postwar immigration clearly passed that
test. Equally clearly, Muslim immigrants more recently have not. Australians
generally, I believe, have had enough of this. If the Government won't deal
withit, they will soon have had enough ofit, too.
John Stone is a former treasury secretary and National party senator.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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